Roy Barnes wins Georgia governor primary; GOP opponent still unknown

Georgia Democrat Roy Barnes
will run for his old job after winning his party’s gubernatorial primary
Tuesday. Barnes won a resounding victory over Attorney General Thurbert Baker,
his closest competitor in the seven-man primary.

With about half the results
counted, Barnes had a commanding lead with 63 percent of the vote to Baker’s 22
percent. The Associated Press declared him the winner. Barnes served one term
as governor that ended in 2003.

The Republican gubernatorial
primary, meanwhile, appears headed to a runoff between former Secretary of
State Karen Handel and former Rep. Nathan Deal. The race hasn’t been called
yet.

Barnes’s victory got the
attention of the the Republican Governors Association, which called him “a
lifetime politician and a personal injury trial lawyer.”

“While this is Roy’s fourth run at being governor of Georgia, we
are confident the outcome in November will be so decisive that this will
mercifully be his last,” Nick Ayers, executive director of the RGA, said in a
statement.